


Are You Doing Anything Later?

by orpikjam44



Series: I'll Make It Right [3]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hockey, Anxiety, Colorado Avalanche, Exes, Hockey, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mental Instability, NHL RPF, POV Alternating, Vancouver Canucks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-07
Updated: 2014-01-07
Packaged: 2018-01-07 21:01:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1124336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orpikjam44/pseuds/orpikjam44
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nazzy receives a phone call from an old friend who knows how to make him smile.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Are You Doing Anything Later?

**Author's Note:**

> POV switch to Naz. Who is going through some kind of mental crisis or something. Be careful, bucko.

CHAPTER THREE (Nazzy’s POV)

He’s rearranged everything in his house again. Organizing. Sorting. Trying to rid himself of _things_ he doesn’t need. Trying, but not succeeding. Shifting things around, instead. Things he doesn’t need.

Nazzy is sitting on the edge of his bed, wearing blue sweatpants and a gray zip-up hoodie, no shirt underneath it. A picture is clutched in his hands and it’s taking every ounce of his energy to keep from breaking down in tears.

Everything is Bert. Everything reminds him of Bert. Everything is _them_. Together.

The picture is of the two of them in suits. It had been something official, not just a spur-of-the-moment photo shoot he and Bert had decided to do -- though that would have been nice, wouldn’t it have been?

So how is he supposed to spend time away from Bert if everything is Bert? He’d tried to get rid of it, but he couldn’t even throw out one item in his house. It was almost unnerving how much stuff there was that reminded him of their relationship. _You never know until you try to get away from it,_ he thought, rubbing a hand over his chin. He’d shaved that morning, trying to keep the stubble away, the warm prickle that brought back feelings of Bert’s kisses.

He doesn’t want to break up. Does he want to break up? Maybe. Maybe it’s time. It’s been a long-standing relationship. That’s what you did when things didn’t feel good any more, right? Broke it off? Or tried to fix it, he told himself.

But how could all of this be fixed?

Fixing... thats’s what you do to broken things. And broken people.

Broken... who had first called him broken? Was it Bert? It was probably Bert. No, he could specifically remember telling Bert about it, and then Bert pulling him against his chest, whispering love into his ear and--

Nazzy shakes his head. No. It had not been Bert that had called him _broken_. It had been someone else. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t Bert.

His phone rings, echoing in the empty house.

Nazzy sniffs, pushing the picture into his nightstand drawer before trudging off to retrieve the phone. “Hello?”

“Hey, Markus, it’s Peter.”

Nazzy starts, pressing the phone harder against his ear. Peter Forsberg. Where did this sudden contact from his best friend come from? He’s certainly not complaining. “Foppa,” he says with a smile, dropping back against the wall. “You’ve been a stranger recently. I don’t like when you’re a stranger.”

He can hear Peter chuckling, it’s warm and familiar and now he wishes he could see Peter’s face to go along with it. His smile. The lines that formed around his eyes when he laughed. Nazzy cuddles his cheek into the receiver, eyes closed, imagining Peter as he last saw him. Which was... He stops.

The game. The last time he saw Peter was after _the Incident_. Peter played for the Avalanche. Nazzy remembered seeing him after the game, he remembered Peter consoling him, but couldn’t grasp the memory of exactly what they said and did. Everything had been a blur. Everything still is a blur.

“I don’t like being a stranger,” he says, voice purring into Nazzy’s ear, making the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. “That’s why I’m coming to visit. I figured you needed a friend after...” He trails off.

Nazzy nods, then, realizing Peter can’t see him, says, “That would be nice.”

“How’s Bert taking this?”

Nazzy bites his lip, then switches the phone to the other ear. “Bert...” He sniffs. “Bert’s not taking it well. I’m not, either.”

“...You guys okay?”

The concern in his voice makes Nazzy feel like Peter has just dropped in and swooped him into a hug. His fists tighten. He wants those arms tight around him, that warm chest, that voice real in his ear rather than over the phone. “No,” he says. “It’s... Bert says I need help.”

“Do you?”

“Probably. Maybe just your help. Bert couldn’t help. He’s too...”

“Bert?”

Nazzy smiles running his fingers through his hair. Plenty of people have tried to help him since _the Incident _happened, but no one could ever get through to him like Peter. Or Bert. Or Bert before it all happened, that is... “Yes,” he finally says.__

__Another chuckle makes Nazzy’s smile bigger._ _

__“When are you coming?” Nazzy asks._ _

__“What are you doing later today?”_ _

__Nazzy gives the phone a puzzled look, pursing his lips. “Today?”_ _

__“I checked our schedules to find a day when our days off hit at the same time. I’m not going to be there long, I have to be back home in the morning, but you’re more important to me than some lost sleep, Naz.”_ _

__A picture sitting on the counter catches Nazzy’s eye and a pang of guilt hits his heart like a hammer. It’s Bert in the picture, him on the ice, nothing special, but... it’s Bert. He wouldn’t like hearing the way Nazzy was talking, how he was blushing at Peter’s comforting tones._ _

__But what was wrong with it?_ _

__After all, Peter had been his first._ _

__But Bert had been his last._ _

__He bites his lip again. “I’m not doing anything later. Well, now I am.”_ _


End file.
